In full-year 2021, strong price execution and attractive product and brand offering resulted in record net sales of SEK 125,631m (115,960), operating income excl. non-recurring items of SEK 7,528m (5,778), and operating margin excl. non-recurring items of 6.0% (5.0). Income for the period excl. non-recurring items was SEK 5,220m (3,988).
In the fourth quarter 2021, net sales amounted to SEK 35,372m (33,902) and operating income to SEK 882m (2,498), corresponding to a margin of 2.5% (7.4). Operating income includes costs of SEK 727m, relating to arbitration in U.S. tariff case, impacting the business area North America. Excluding this non-recurring item, operating income amounted to SEK 1,609m, corresponding to a margin of 4.5% (7.4).
Price offset significant cost inflation. Global supply chain constraints continued to limit product availability and result in higher costs. Income for the period amounted to SEK 596m (1,860) and earnings per share was SEK 2.09 (6.47). Operating cash flow after investments was SEK 2,103m (5,364). The Board proposes a dividend for 2021 of SEK 9.20 (8.00) per share, to be paid in two equal instalments. The Board proposes the AGM 2022 to resolve on cancellation of repurchased shares and to renew the mandate to acquire own shares. The Board intends to thereafter initiate a new share buyback program for an amount of approximately SEK 2.5bn.
President and CEO Jonas Samuelson says, “In 2021, sales growth was 14.3%, operating margin excl. non-recurring items 6.0% and return on net assets 28.5%. One other important achievement was that already this year we almost reached our 2025 science-based climate target for our own operations – to reduce CO2 emissions by 80%.
He continues, “The second year of the pandemic presented different opportunities and challenges – increasing production to meet strong demand, while managing higher input material prices as well as global supply chain constraints. In the fourth quarter, these constraints resulted in significantly higher costs for express logistics and spot buys compared to an already high level in the third quarter and had a similar impact with regards to planned production output. Despite this, I am pleased how we managed to increase sales of our higher margin products and started the ramp-up in three additional factories, on top of the two that are already up and running within our SEK 8bn re-engineering investment program. Sales growth in the fourth quarter was 4.9% and operating margin excl. non-recurring items was 4.5%. Looking into 2022, we expect demand levels to be above pre-pandemic levels, as people are likely to continue to invest in their homes. We assess market demand in terms of value to increase in all regions in 2022.”
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